Beyond the Destination: Your World. Our Perspective.

Welcome to the Zegrahm Expeditions Blog! Here you will find inspiration for your next adventure and information from your last adventure, produced by our field leaders, Seattle office staff, and contributing writers. You may filter this content by geographic region or by type, including blog post, field report—daily recap of a past expedition with photos—video, or image slideshow. Explore your world, from our perspective.

In some ways the truly ancient history of Asia Minor resides in the plains of central Anatolia and the mountain ranges of Eastern Turkey. Here ruled the great civilizations of the Hittites and Urartians, followed by Greeks, Commageneans, Romans, Byzantines, Armenians, Selçuks, Ilkhanids, Karmanids, and many other dynasties. It is in eastern Turkey that one gets an authentic sense of Asia Minor as a crossroads of empires. Villages and towns unspoiled by tourism still exist,...

To experience the exhilaration of a humpback whale breeching is an experience of a lifetime, a moment never to be forgotten. But to see this awe inspiring behavior near the shores of Fernandina Island, one of the few truly virgin islands in the world…. is in fact other-worldly. Perhaps the encounter this morning at Punta Espinosa was even more inspirational for me since I am celebrating two anniversaries; 25 years since we founded Zegrahm Expeditions and 40 years since my first expedition to...

Monday, May 18, 2015 - London, England / Plymouth / Dartmoor / Embark Sea Adventurer:Our adventure began in the surroundings of the Hilton Hotel at London’s Paddington Station where we had gathered yesterday to meet our fellow travelers and some of the expedition team. This morning we were shepherded through the rush hour crowds to catch our train which took us through some lovely English countryside and along the...

That question has been on the minds of many intrepid travelers, whose desire to visit this friendly and fascinating country is tempered by concerns over personal safety. Over the past few years in particular, the region surrounding Iran has been a hotbed of political and revolutionary turmoil; graphic images on television and elsewhere do little to quell the concern.

Yet as recent news events have sadly shown, isolated tragedies can happen anywhere. So for those adventurers whose...

Tuesday & Wednesday, April 28 & 29, 2015 - Depart USA / Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, Azores: From a diverse array of states and nations, 68 intrepid adventurers set out to celebrate a quarter of a century in the adventure travel industry. All arrived at the charming island of São Miguel in the Azores and checked in at the Hotel Marina Atlantico. In the early evening we joined our fellow travelers for our welcome reception and dinner at the...

Since 2006, a team of Japanese archaeologists, using a 3D imaging scanner, has uncovered nearly 25 previously hidden geoglyphs in the high desert of southern Peru. These new aerial photographs add yet another chapter to the mystery of the millennia-old Nazca Lines.

So, what are the Nazca Lines? A series of giant animal and geometic figures etched into the high plateaus of Peru’s Nazca Desert, the Nazca Lines are by far the world’s most impressive collection of ancient...

Saturday, April 4, 2015 - Belém, Brazil: We converged on the city of Belém at the mouth of the Amazon River, to explore one of the most biologically diverse regions on the planet. This incredible river, which discharges more water than any other river in the world, accounts for nearly 1/5 of all river outflow on the planet! The Amazon basin represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract...

Although best known for incredible game viewing—particularly during the Great Migration, one of Nature’s grandest spectacles—Tanzania attracts its fair share of twitchers*, as well. The country is one of Africa’s best bird-watching destinations, with more than 1,100 species including a host of endemic and near endemics, as well as hundreds of migrants that visit between November and April each year. (To put that into perspective, there are around 750 species in the U.S. and Canada combined...

Sunday, April 26, 2015 - Broome, Australia: Located in the far northwest of Australia, our independent journeys to this remote part of the island-continent finally ended in Broome. Staying at the beautiful Cable Beach Club Resort overlooking the Indian Ocean, we met our fellow travelers, renewed old acquaintances, and made new friends over sunset cocktails. At the welcome dinner our Expedition Leader Jeff Gneiser introduced himself and set out the plan for the...